Brand Licensing European Special Report 2016

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TVKIDS

WWW.TVKIDS.WS

OCTOBER 2016

BRAND LICENSING EUROPE SPECIAL REPORT

L&M Trends / Genius Brands’ Andy Heyward FremantleMedia Kids & Family’s Rick Glankler / Mercis’ Marja Kerkhof

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CONTENTS

In the Game This summer, hordes of people were walking around glued to their smartphones at all hours of the day and night trying to “catch ‘em all” as Pokémon GO fever reached pandemic levels.

Ricardo Seguin Guise Publisher Anna Carugati Group Editorial Director Mansha Daswani Editor Kristin Brzoznowski Executive Editor Joanna Padovano Managing Editor Sara Alessi Associate Editor Victor L. Cuevas Production & Design Director Phyllis Q. Busell Art Director Simon Weaver Online Director Dana Mattison Senior Sales & Marketing Manager Elizabeth Walsh Sales & Marketing Manager Andrea Moreno Business Affairs Manager

Ricardo Seguin Guise President Anna Carugati Executive VP Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development TV Kids © 2016 WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, #1207 New York, NY 10010 Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website: www.tvkids.ws

The app, an extension of the hit Japanese anime franchise, was released in July and quickly became a worldwide phenomenon. In the U.S., Pokémon GO overtook Twitter at one point in terms of daily users and has seen people spending more time on its app than on Facebook. Globally, the mobile game has exceeded 500 million downloads and set the App Store record for the most downloads in its first week of launch. It is estimated that Pokémon GO generates around $10 million in revenue daily.

These are staggering figures, especially for a brand that has been around for 20 years. Pokémon (which translates to “pocket monsters”) began as a pair of video games, published in 1996 by Nintendo, and skyrocketed into mainstream popularity in the late ’90s with an anime series. Its catchy theme song proclaimed “Pokémon! Gotta catch ‘em all,” inspiring consumers to buy into the collectability of the brand— and that they have. (The Pokémon trading-card game has shipped upwards of 21.5 billion cards to 74 countries in 10 languages.)

Alongside collectability, this brand exhibits another characteristic that translates into success in the licensing and merchandising (L&M) business: nostalgia. Viewers form connections with shows as kids that can stick with them long into adulthood. Parents are then keen to share these beloved properties with their own children, ponying up for merchandise tied to the modern iterations quite quickly when a child says, “I want that!” A TV property that can evoke patterns of collectability or spark nostalgia certainly has a greater chance of cutting through in the ultra-crowded L&M space.

In this issue, we hear from rights owners about their strategies for navigating today’s increasingly competitive L&M business. We also feature insightful interviews with Genius Brands International’s Andy Heyward, FremantleMedia Kids & Family’s Rick Glankler and Mercis’ Marja Kerkhof, each of whom has a unique approach to brand-building today.

As content creators and licensors heading to this year’s Brand Licensing Europe (BLE) eye the opportunities ahead in the kids’ business, they are no doubt hoping to come across a Pokémon-esque property that has the ability to resonate for generations to come and inspire pandemonium for the brand’s extensions.

—Kristin Brzoznowski

FEATURE 4 LICENSE TO THRILL Brand owners attending BLE this year are focusing their strategies on properties with built-in awareness, innovative new products and digital extensions as they seek to make an impact at retail and in kids’ lives.

00 INTERVIEWS 10 Genius Brands’ Andy Heyward

12 FremantleMedia’s Rick Glankler

14 Mercis’ Marja Kerkhof

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Ahead of BLE, rights owners share their strategies for standing out in the kids’ licensing and merchandising business.

By Sara Alessi

Saban Brands’ Cirque du Soleil Junior: Luna Petunia.

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y all accounts, the global licensing business is buoyant right now. Global retail sales of licensed goods hit $251.7 billion in 2015, marking a 4.2percent increase over the previous year. According to data from LIMA’s Annual Global Licensing Industry Survey, character- and entertainment-based brands continue to be the most dominant categories, delivering 45 percent of all licensed retail sales.

That’s good news for content rights owners as they continue to navigate the crowded waters of the kids’ licensing and merchandising (L&M) business.

The prospects are particularly bright for those that can offer retailers products inspired by proven brands with dedicated fan bases. When kids see items featuring characters from their favorite TV shows on store shelves, their wish lists grow, and so do revenues.

BRAND RECOGNITION Established properties like Saban Brands’ Power Rangers franchise continue to draw in new and returning fans, a harbinger for ongoing success in the kids’ L&M arena. “Power Rangers has become an iconic, evergreen brand that taps into the strong nostalgia trend influencing today’s consumer products industry,” says Janet Hsu, the CEO of Saban Brands, of the 23-year-old property. “Retailers look for brands with proven success at retail and consumer awareness, which is why longstanding franchises, like Power Rangers, see such strong traction.”

For the new Netflix original kids’ series Cirque du Soleil Junior: Luna Petunia, Saban is betting on the built-in recognition associated with the Cirque brand.

Funrise is already on board as the global master toy licensee for the animated preschool property, which premieres in late 2016, with the toy range set to hit the U.S. market in fall 2017. Initial categories will

include dolls, accessories, playsets, plush, role-play and dress-up, among others.

Risa Greenbaum, the assistant VP of international licensing at Sesame Workshop, knows a thing or two about proven brands. At Brand Licensing Europe (BLE), “Sesame Street is the core franchise that we’ll be representing,” she says. “Retailers like properties that are established and have proven themselves because those tend to be lower risk.”

Sesame Workshop is also promoting newer shows such as The Furchester Hotel, which is in production on two additional seasons for CBeebies in the U.K., and an all-new Elmo’s World. Both properties feature characters from the mainstay brand, giving them an advantage when it comes to L&M. Another veteran property that has been gaining traction in the kids’ L&M world is the anime brand Yu-Gi-Oh!, which began as a manga comic in Japan 20 years ago and is celebrating its 15th anniversary in territories outside of Asia this year. The Yu-Gi-Oh! brand has developed into a trading-card game and a TV series with five iterations. According to Jennifer Coleman, the VP of licensing and marketing at 4K Media, Yu-Gi-Oh! possesses the “three key components that you want to have with any successful children’s brand that can allow it to remain evergreen and stay in the consciousness.”

These are its roots in publishing, gameplay and collectability associated with the trading-card game, and a TV series that reinforces the core values of the brand.

Mondo TV is looking to expand the licensing program for the animated series Sissi, the Young Empress, which has had time to build a following on the small screen. The first season launched in Italy last year and since then Mondo has “developed an extensive licensing program based on the property” throughout Europe, says Valentina La Macchia, Mondo TV’s director of consumer products. The company plans to “continue to work on this franchise and to create long-term partnerships with the existing

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feature film and the new season of the TV series, Power Rangers Ninja Steel, both set for 2017. Global master toy licensee Bandai will launch a new Power Rangers toy line inspired by the 23rd television season. There will also be product lines from new partners Mattel, Funko, Jada Toys and Bioworld, among others.

Toys, apparel and publishing have been the biggest drivers for Sesame Workshop’s brands, Greenbaum notes, “but we’re always looking to expand into areas we feel could benefit children, such as the food category,” with healthy alternatives taking center stage.

STAYING FRESH Sesame Workshop continues to refresh the product lines featuring the core Sesame Street characters.

licensees and reach new ones,” she notes. With an eye toward keeping the property fresh, Mondo TV will present a new style guide for the 26-episode second season of the series at BLE. Mondo is also highlighting new properties with roots in well-known brands: YooHoo & Friends, based on the plush line from toy company Aurora World, and Heidi, Bienvenida a Casa, a live-action co-production between Mondo TV Iberoamerica and Alianzas Producciones.

While having a property with a track record of fan engagement or roots in a well-known brand is helpful when trying to get merchandise on shelves, proven brands cannot simply rest on their laurels and expect to attract consumers or retailers.

GOING 360 “At Saban Brands, we break through by taking a 360degree approach for our diverse portfolio of brands with elevated content and multiplatform distribution, innovative licensing and retail programs, as well as disruptive marketing strategies and initiatives,” Hsu says.

At BLE, Saban has a dual focus for the Power Rangers brand, concentrating on both the upcoming

The continued rollout of products based on Masha and the Bear is a key focus for Ink Global.

“We want consumers to know that even for a brand with such longevity in some markets, we continue to be fresh and vibrant,” Greenbaum continues. “We have a new saying we like to share: ‘It’s a brand-new day on Sesame Street.’ We’re committed to strengthening the core Sesame Street characters such as Elmo, Cookie Monster, Big Bird and Abby Cadabby. We’re developing some great new content. We’re building new partnerships such as [one] with Apple and one with IBM.” 4K Media’s Coleman says the Yu-Gi-Oh! brand is continuing to evolve. “We’ve got some great new artwork that was never available to us before because we’re now a Konami-owned company. We’re also working on taking [the brand] in new directions and opening different doors we hadn’t previously been allowed to open for Yu-Gi-Oh!. The new style guide that we’ve been developing is called Super-deformed, and we’ll be announcing new partners for that soon.

Thanks to that new artwork, we’ve got some great interest from partners who we might not have been able to work with before.”

Publishing is a core category for Yu-Gi-Oh!, Coleman adds. Partners include Scholastic and UDON Entertainment, and both have new Yu-Gi-Oh!

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books coming out in Q4. “We hope that it’s just the start of [what] we’ll be able to do in the publishing category. I will pursue publishing in all shapes and formats where it makes sense for our brand and our partners in Japan,” she says. Apparel is another strong category, with FREEZE and Bioworld on board.

Ink Global is heading to BLE with hopes to extend the L&M campaign further for Masha and the Bear, which “has already established hugely successful consumer-products (CP) programs in many markets,” says Annalisa Woods, the commercial director for Ink Group. Masha is “at varying levels of brand maturity throughout Europe, and so the CP strategy needs to reflect this,” Woods adds. “We are renewing, extending and expanding our key existing partnerships, while also signing up new partners locally at regional levels to supply the increasing consumer demand as the brand’s popularity continues to soar.”

Many of the core categories are covered across Europe, so Ink Global’s plan is to “extend our work with partners in the FMCG and promotional categories, as well as continue to partner with [strong] brands locally across all markets.”

Mondo TV’s La Macchia stresses that a successful L&M strategy is about “not just strengthening existing categories, but always looking to expand our business…. In this way, we are able to increase our revenue because we can develop more SKUs, more products for different retailers and have more products on shelves.”

Food, promotions and personal care goods are prime growth opportunities for La Macchia. The main categories Mondo TV is pursuing for all of its brands include fashion and back to school. The toy category is also paramount, especially for preschool brands like YooHoo & Friends, La Macchia says.

Mondo TV is co-producing season three of the series with Aurora World, which is in charge of plush for that brand. She reports that Mondo TV is currently in several conversations regarding the master toy license and is also pursuing secondary toys like puzzles, board games and arts and crafts, as well as publishing.

While L&M categories may be expanding, entertainment and retail consolidation are creating some woes for independent content rights owners.

SHRINKING SHELVES Ink’s Woods believes that “consolidation of IP portfolios under fewer brand-owning entities is creating an interesting, and very tough, dynamic in the industry at the moment. Amalgamation of ‘top’ brands under limited ownerships shrinks the market as it creates a more difficult environment in which independent brands can compete and thrive.”

4K Media’s Coleman agrees that entertainment consolidation has brought about challenges for inde-

pendents. “Couple retail consolidation with entertainment consolidation and there is less shelf space and fewer companies out there trying to keep the buyers on their toes,” she says.

“There are a lot of big movie properties [that] are literally buying shelf space at retail,” Sesame’s Greenbaum adds. “It makes it a little tough from a competitive perspective. Retailers are choosing to support fewer and fewer properties.”

That means it’s more important to offer new ways for consumers to enjoy longstanding brands. As such, Greenbaum believes these challenges come with a silver lining.

CREATIVE SOLUTIONS “We like to think of it more as an opportunity for Sesame Street, and it challenges us to think about things differently and create better products and new ways to license our brand,” Greenbaum says. “You have to think differently about the brand these days, everybody does. The traditional categories are great, and they serve as a great baseline for developing licensing programs, but you need to think out of the box and try new things.”

Freshness is key for the products themselves.

Saban’s Hsu adds, “It is crucial for brands to focus on

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The product line for 4K Media’s Yu-Gi-Oh! includes collectibles.

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innovation as retailers look for stand-out products that have clear points of differentiation from what is currently on the market.”

REACHING RETAIL

One of Mondo TV’s new highlights is the live-action series Heidi, Bienvenida a Casa, which has builtin brand recognition.

Mondo TV’s La Macchia also believes that to stand out, a licensing program must offer a point of difference. “Retailers want to see things that make your brand, your product and your message different from everybody else’s. They want something unique,” she says. “So to capture buyers’ interest, there has to be some level of exclusivity for the offer, and there are different ways to achieve that [such as] a unique brand or exclusive products that are only available at [specific] retailers.”

For 4K Media’s Coleman, it is critical to maintain relationships with both licensees and retailers to ensure that the products being pitched are relevant.

“We’re trying to create and grow direct relationships with the retailers so that we have a dialogue with

them. We can tell them directly what’s happening with the brand, why it’s worth looking at and who all of our partners are so that they’re not just getting single-product category pitches from our licensees,” she explains. “We can show them the breadth and scope of what’s available on the licensing side.”

Coleman adds, “We are cultivating retailer relationships so that when there is an opportunity to create special product for them, we can pounce on it.”

DIGITAL DRIVE Another key area of focus for brand owners is the digital sphere, which is creating an entirely new pathway to consumers.

“To build something in the consumer-products [space] you need a table with four legs, and the fourth leg is digital distribution,” says Bruno Zarka, Ink Group’s media director. “You can’t build something only on digital, you can’t build something only on TV.” “We realize that it’s a different world, and kids can do things on iPads and devices that they never could do before,” Sesame’s Greenbaum says. “So we’re making sure that we create new digital content that meets the needs of today’s kids. That’s where kids are today, so it’s important for us to be there as well.”

Greenbaum acknowledges the power of apps to help youngsters further engage with a brand. “We have almost 30 Sesame Street apps, some of which have won awards. They bring our characters to life through engaging and interactive content: there’s music, there are games, there are lots of fun ways for kids to interact with our apps these days. We also have an extensive line of e-books that are available globally on many platforms. So digital is an area that we focus on, and we see a lot of opportunity with it.”

Mondo’s La Macchia shares Greenbaum’s perspective. “Digital is very important. We just launched a game app [for] Sissi. We will continue to create more innovative products to target these brands.”

4K Media’s Coleman reports that gaming is an essential element of Yu-Gi-Oh!’s digital strategy, which is handled by Konami Digital Entertainment.

“In the past, Nintendo DS has been a key driver, and PlayStation, Xbox, all of the typical gaming devices have been strong and important platforms for the brand, and they will continue to be.”

“Mobile gaming is a key area of focus for us in the digital L&M space,” echoes Saban’s Hsu. “We’ve partnered with game developer nWay and global content leader Lionsgate to reimagine Power Rangers as a real-time multiplayer mobile action game. Slated to launch next year, the mobile game will connect millions of Power Rangers fans around the world with a gaming experience unlike anything else.”

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TV KIDS: Tell us about how you are exploring new distribution models with your latest property, SpacePOP. HEYWARD: SpacePOP came from what we saw as white space in the marketplace, from the vacuum after Monster High. There was nothing there for tween girls. So we developed SpacePOP. We know that princesses are a powerful theme for girls. We know that music is very powerful, as is space. So we came up with this concept of five princesses in space. They form a rock band and go underground to lead the rebel resistance to recapture their place in the galaxy and throw off an evil, oppressive force. That’s the premise. It’s Spice Girls meets Star Wars. It’s very, very cool. It’s an unusual concept and a unique distribution plan. Instead of going to a Disney Channel or a Nickelodeon, for example, we decided to launch the brand on YouTube. Girls at that age, they’re living on YouTube. They spend a lot of their screen time there. They absorb content in short doses. We have produced 108 3-minute episodes. In the middle of each one, there’s a music video. We started with six episodes when we launched on June 20, and we’re releasing two new episodes a week.

Within a month or so of launching, we reached approximately 4 million views, so we feel the content is resonating with our audience. We are now gearing up for the fall retail launch. We have nearly 20 licensing partners and counting that are creating merchandise for everything you can imagine: publishing, toys, apparel, accessories, confections, pretty much every major category. And we have prime retail distribution and extraordinary promotional partners on board.

By Mansha Daswani

Andy Heyward has had a front-row seat to the tectonic shifts in the kids’ business over his long entertainment career. Today the chairman and CEO of Genius Brands International, Heyward got his start at the legendary animation studio Hanna-Barbera and later, over the course of some 25 years, built DIC Entertainment into an independent kids’ and family powerhouse. After selling DIC, Heyward soon set up a new venture, A Squared Entertainment, and a few years later, eyeing a foothold in the toddler and preschool arena, merged it with Genius Brands. Having watched as broadcast television ceded its position in kids’ lives to cable, and now observing as on-demand and online platforms take up more of children’s entertainment time, Heyward has identified digital media as a key growth opportunity. He talks to TV Kids about shaking up distribution models with new shows like SpacePOP and offers his take on building 360-degree brands that will conquer the attention of kids on screen and at retail.

TV KIDS: Will your distribution team be selling the show to broadcast platforms worldwide?

HEYWARD: After SpacePOP has had its run on YouTube, we’re developing a full-length feature with Sony [Pictures Home Entertainment], which will be released in Q4 this year. There’s a lot going on with the brand from all sides: licensing, home entertainment, digital and national promotions with Six Flags, Camplified and Dippin’ Dots, as well as promotions on platforms that appeal to young girls, like musical.ly. We’ve also hired a team of tween and teen influencers who have millions of followers. They’re promoting the music and the SpacePOP business overall. So there are a lot of dimensions to this. We’re also putting international agents in place in all the major territories to start taking the brand to the international marketplace.

TV KIDS: And you’re producing a new animated show for Netflix?

HEYWARD: It’s a property called Llama Llama, based on a series of preschool books [by New York Times best-selling author and illustrator Anna Dewdney]. They’ve sold over 9 million copies. The authors came to us. They met with everybody in

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Hollywood. Because of the controls we were able to provide to them and the creative input, they chose us. We’ve got an amazing team on this: Rob Minkoff, director of The Lion King; Joe Purdy, an accomplished Emmy-winning writer who did everything from Hey Arnold! to Dinosaur Train; Ruben Aquino, who designed every major featurefilm character from Disney going back to The Little Mermaid right through to Frozen. So there’s a real team of champions on this from start to finish.

Plus, Jennifer Garner just signed to voice Mama Llama. In terms of distribution, we wanted to go with what we thought would be the strongest platform for this particular property and partnered with Netflix. We’re producing 30 11-minute segments, 15 half-hour episodes. The original series is slated to premiere in 2017, along with a fully developed licensing and retail program.

TV KIDS: What gains are you seeing with your video-on-demand channels?

HEYWARD: Kid Genius is currently in 21 million homes via Comcast’s XFINITY On Demand platform, and we have just secured our first major advertisers through our media buyer, batteryPOP. We expect to have the channel’s reach grow very dramatically by the fourth quarter of this year. We consider it a very important platform and will continue to create and curate interesting content to fuel that pipeline.

TV KIDS: How are you maintaining the momentum on your returning brands?

HEYWARD: On Baby Genius we have an exclusive deal with Amazon until the end of 2016, and then the program will go wide. We’re developing and producing new content, and we’re looking to engage a celebrity ‘spokesmom’ who is in the music world. With Thomas Edison’s Secret Lab, we have distribution on Netflix, our Kid Genius channel and nearly 200 public television stations across the country. Plus, we have a master toy licensee, Wicked Cool Toys, and other partners on board to target rolling out merchandise in 2017.

TV KIDS: What’s your sense of what licensees and retailers are looking for in this crowded marketplace?

HEYWARD: We have a slightly different approach. We initially approach the retailers and then we go back to the licensees. We have relationships with Toys “R” Us, Target, all of the major retailers. We work with them to find where the white space is, where

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the holes are. Then we begin developing a plan, and with their support we then go to the licensees and get them on board. Stone Newman is running our worldwide consumer products and marketing business. He had his own very successful toy business, and we wooed him to come work with us. He’s done an amazing job building our licensing, merchandising, retail and promotional programs. He’s revitalized our licensing business dramatically.

TV KIDS: Tell us about your perspective on new technology, and how it’s enhancing the value of animated content.

HEYWARD: I like to refer to Tom and Jerry, as it’s such a great example. Tom and Jerry was made in 1939. Kids are still watching Tom and Jerry today— 3-, 4-, 5-year-olds are discovering it for the first time and loving it. Tom and Jerry was made for motion-picture theaters; that’s where it ran. Then it went to television. It went from broadcast to cable, VHS to DVDs and Blu-ray and the internet, and now to all of the new and emerging technologies and platforms. It doesn’t matter what the platform is—the content remains engaging. This is one of the few businesses that are enriched by technology and distribution systems, not hindered by innovation. Good content will travel and live a long, long time, particularly so for children’s animation, which tends to be evergreen and international. Good stories and characters are timeless. I wrote on The Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, The Smurfs—those were made in the ’70s, and they are still successful today. If you know how to create conflict and crisis and jeopardy and hijinks, all of the tools of good storytelling and rich characters, you’re going to have a successful product, whatever the distribution platform is and whatever new technology comes around.

Genius Brands’ SpacePOP is set to spawn a slate of merchandise for its core tween-girl audience.

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this year and have been really well received. With the classic series also airing internationally on Netflix, alongside the new series, we are in the fortunate position of being able to run parallel L&M campaigns, with the classic range aimed at adults and the new aimed at children.

Tree Fu Tom is an action personality created to appeal to the under 5s. The interactive spells, inspired by Kung Fu, are hugely popular and allow children to believe that they can be just like Tom.

RICK GLANKLER FREMANTLEMEDIA KIDS & FAMILY

By Mansha Daswani

Since its launch in 2009, FremantleMedia Kids & Family has amassed a stable of animated and live-action properties targeting the preschool set all the way up to tweens. Under the leadership of Rick Glankler as president and general manager, FremantleMedia Kids & Family has focused on rolling out properties that not only deliver for broadcasters and ondemand platforms, but for retailers as well.

TV KIDS: Tell us about your key properties from an L&M perspective.

GLANKLER: Our major focuses are Kate & Mim-Mim, Danger Mouse and Tree Fu Tom. All have secured a strong footprint, with each distributed to over 100 territories.

Kate & Mim-Mim celebrates the special friendship between a young girl and her toy bunny. Living in the real world, Kate is an inspirational role model with a boundless imagination. In the fantastical world of Mimiloo, she can be anyone she wants to be, whether it’s a princess, a train driver or an astronaut—these themes resonate strongly with girls today.

The combination of action and comedy make Danger Mouse stand out from other properties for the target age group of boys 5-plus. The gadgets and vehicles, villains and multiple locations provide many layers for play patterns and subsequent consumer-product opportunities.

The first toys launched at retail in the U.K. in the spring of

TV KIDS: What are the main challenges in the L&M market today?

GLANKLER: Consumers still demand great stories and when they find one they like they will consume it ferociously; the rise in binge-watching is a testament to this.

But with so much platform fragmentation and content saturation, the stories have to be really good and highly original if they are going to stand out and drive deeper brand engagement, which is what drives successful consumer-product programs. In addition, the plethora of blockbuster theatrical releases that are becoming sustainable franchises has further saturated an already congested market. With their massive investment, [feature films have] eaten into an area that was traditionally dominated by broadcast—even in preschool. This broad choice is great for consumers but continues to pose massive challenges for IP owners and licensors competing to reach kid audiences.

TV KIDS: What are retailers looking for? What trends are you seeing in the market?

GLANKLER: Increased competition has created a need for even faster results, and there is even more pressure for brands to gain immediate traction. Movies with extensive marketing spend continue to drive a lot of the L&M market for kids, and we are also seeing franchises that offer up different experiences for kids of all ages under the same brand umbrella.

While still critically important, ratings are no longer the single most important driver for securing shelf space. Retailers are looking to see how brands engage with kids off- as well as on-screen and are relying more and more on IP owners and licensors to invest heavily in marketing their brands.

TV KIDS: What opportunities do you see outside of the big-box retailers?

GLANKLER: Our ability to engage consumers in active conversations via social media allows us to talk to them in a more meaningful way and drive them to the most appropriate retail opportunities, whether they are online or at brick-and-mortar retailers.

For FremantleMedia Kids & Family in the U.K., the independent toy chains continue to grow year on year and are becoming an essential part of the retail mix.

Retailers are also becoming savvier about the need to drive footfall by offering more immersive in-store retail experiences, which provide great opportunities for us with character costume tours and similar initiatives that help expand brand engagement.

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In 1955, Dick Bruna’s first picture books featuring a small female rabbit hit the shelves in the Netherlands. Since then, the Miffy books have sold more than 85 million copies worldwide, spawned animated series and specials and notched up in excess of 300 licensing partners across a wealth of categories. Brand owner Mercis is currently working on a third season of the new CGI series Miffy’s Adventures Big and Small for delivery in the summer of 2017 and is looking for new licensing partners while building on its existing relationships. Marja Kerkhof, the managing director of Mercis, tells TV Kids about what’s still to come for Miffy in the years ahead.

Bruna has been able to work for so many years in the same kind of style. It’s vibrant, it’s very iconic and it stands out. If you see a whole sheet of characters, you still will notice Miffy.

TV KIDS: How have you updated your L&M strategy for the new series launch?

KERKHOF: We’ve continued with the 2D style for some products. For other products, we have a whole new style guide for the TV series with everything from packaging to displays. Licensees can still also make their own designs, but we want to provide them with a rich style guide for them to be inspired. And we still have style guides we update all the time for the 2D artwork.

TV KIDS: With such widespread awareness already, how do you continue to build the brand?

KERKHOF: We make a trend book every year and we keep it up to date. Also, we have projects that are very different. For example, in some countries we have pro-

MARJA KERKHOF MERCIS

By Mansha Daswani

TV KIDS: How did the new animated series for Miffy come about?

KERKHOF: A few years ago, we felt that we really wanted to make a new series. We had just finished the movie, which was successful, and then we decided to look for a new series with a new approach. We talked to several studios, looking for the best possible one to make a series with us. After some research, we decided to go with Blue-Zoo Animation Studio in the U.K., who we felt had a very good understanding of the brand.

We wanted an international series, and we decided that CGI is so good nowadays, we really wanted to go with that. We talked with a team of writers to capture the essentials of the brand. That’s how it came along. We went for 52 episodes of 7 minutes each. We decided to make 26 more episodes. We’re very pleased with the series and it’s done very well in the countries it’s been broadcast in. The children respond very well, which is the ultimate test!

TV KIDS: To what do you attribute Miffy’s enduring appeal, 61 years since she was created?

KERKHOF: The illustrations are almost like pictograms, they’re so clear and the colors are so bright. Dick

grams with athletics clubs for young kids to exercise, even as young as two years old. We have art projects. We have exhibitions in museums. There are always new initiatives and activities.

TV KIDS:What are your goals for the brand in the next year?

KERKHOF: The world is very large, and though we are active in quite a lot of countries, there are still countries where we’re not as active. Obviously, we’re looking at that. Also, there are always new parties to work with, especially in apparel, new parties to do special programs with. We are primarily a preschool character but we have a big program with Uniqlo for tween and teen T-shirts. There’s always so much still to be done.

Miffy has 300-plus licensing partners and has spawned a CGI series, Miffy ’s Adventures Big and Small.

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